Practical Work

The white paper test

The white paper test was a task set that enabled us to think from an abstract perspective. We were given one piece of white paper and by folding, scrunching and using different light filters had to create 24 unique images. This task was useful to help us think outside the box and grasp the concept of taking the meaning away from a photograph.

Abstract Chemigram

The chemigram task, again involved creating abstract images through a physical photographic process. By applying nivea cream to the photographic paper it prevented the paper from fully developing, creating obscure shapes. We also experimented with dyes, bleaching, oils and honey to create a variety of colours and textures. Once we applied different substances to the paper it could then be developed with development, stop and fix.

Camden Market

Photographing different aspects of Camden market was an exciting process as we were able to capture a lot of market culture by photographing the sheer variety of sellers, consumers, and products. Each stall had its own individual personality. We also took the the opportunity to talk to a few market sellers who had been working there for many years and explained to us what market life was like and different hardships they faced, for example many newer stalls can mass import products cheaply meaning their prices are very competitive making it harder for the better quality sellers. I found this an interesting aspect to market culture that I had never really considered before. Many of the market sellers have a lack of job security as they face the risk of parts of the market facing closure due to renovation plans. The variety of products and people sparked my inspiration to look into multi culture in my practical brief.

Partnership Response

For this task I paired up with an art student and we exchanged pictures in order to try and respond to each others work. I created a mind map to decipher my first initial thoughts of the piece. My main ideas where based around the 4 elements, nature, patterns and structures.

To develop my piece I am going to explore the natural, earthy elements of the painting and try and capture those same elements in photographs from Scotland.

My Response

Journey

Waking up at 5:30 am my brother and I left North London and began our 12 hour journey to Scotland. Despite the flight from London to Glasgow being just and hour, it was the waiting time and slow train journey through the west coast of which took the most time.

We landed in Glasgow at 10am and made our way to the city centre by the shuttle bus. We briefly stopped for breakfast in St Georges Square. Then we walked over to Glasgow Queen Street station to continue the rest of our journey.

The scenic train Journey took five and a half hours. The train was full of Chatty Scott hikers all going to different locations mostly to Ben Nevis in Fort WillIam. Finally at 5:30 we arrived at Lochailort a station that was so remote we had to ask the Conductor to stop there. Then we met the rest of my family at the station who drove up a few days before with our dog. After 2 hours of driving through windy narrow roads we arrived at our holiday home.

Narrative- Ardnamurchan Lighthouse keeper

On the Scottish mainland lies the Ardnamurchan Lighthouse which marks the most westerly point on the British mainland. With a 230 square Km and a population of 300, Ardnamurchan remains a remote corner of the Uk. The 36 metre granite tower soars 55 metres above the rocks, and was built in 1849 using granite from the Island of Mull. It was designed by Alan Stevenson, uncle of Robert Louis Stevenson, whose family designed most of Scotland’s lighthouses over a period of 150 years. It is the only lighthouse in the world designed in an “Egyptian“ style. Like all the other lighthouses in Scotland, Ardnamurchan now operates automatically, but the tower remains fully operational and still plays a vital role in ensuring the safety of all ships navigating the waters off Scotland’s west coast.The former keepers’ cottages and outbuildings have been managed by the Ardnamurchan Lighthouse Trust since 1996. They are now operated as a visitor centre, offering the chance to learn more about Scottish lighthouses and the Ardnamurchan peninsula.Lighthouse keeper Tom described his experience as a young man in the early 70's working the night shift till the early hours. In order to keep the light working it required him to Spin the huge black mechanisms every 10 minutes. However he experienced a number of close calls as he fell asleep in the night, jeopardising the safety of many boats in a time where communication was no where near as high tech as today.

This links to my practical brief and creatorship as it focuses on a unique culture that tells an untold story.

Practical Brief

Subculture ​For My practical work my initial ideas are to shows specific areas as a multi cultural melting pot. Inspired by the work of Patrick Willocq who creates vibrant collages in different cultures. I am going to take my camera around cities and capture flairs of different cultures, focusing on different patterns, areas, religions, professions etc. I will then start my project by digitally constructing my own collage on Photoshop. I will start by finding a back drop and then will begin to capture loads of little pictures and gradually photoshop them on. ​

Patrick Willocq

Intentions:Context:​Techniqe:

My response

For my response to Patrick Willocq I took my camera up to liverpool city and captured everyday street life of street signs, people and buildings. I chose the city of Liverpool 4 years ago liverpool was named as the capital of culture.I then photoshopped my findings onto one image using the lasso tool and pasting tool. The city was vibrant and colourful but also had a lot of poverty and homeless people so it was an interesting contrast. This image expresses the famous night life in Liverpool and typical northern high street culture. The colours in the abstract collage are bold and work really well together however I am moving on from the collage process as it is a lengthy process and I want to look more into what defines culture. This image is useful for exploring the culture of Liverpool from a macro perspective.

Foreign Culture

Continuing with looking into different cultures, I went round Dacta on the West Coast of Turkey looking into the daily life. Like in Liverpool I wanted to continue to find out what makes a culture unique. I was fascinated by their way of life which hugely contrasts with my home life in the UK. The first image was my initial impression of the country. I was surprised at the patriotic life style and every turn on the street had another Turkish flag, unlike the UK where it is rare to find the union jack proudly flying. The image of the local shop keeper expresses the necessity of the tourist industry. Many of the locals depend on the tourists for business, after the season ends in November the shop keeper describes Dacta as a ghost town. The third image explores the history of Turkey. It was taken on Turkish independence day (29th October) The streets were filled with even more red flags. In the evening there were huge celebrations for the replacement of the constitution of the Ottoman Empire. The leader in the Turkish War of Independence, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, became the country’s first president and is commemorated on the flags today. It was wonderful to see people of all ages come out and celebrate independence. The next image explores the relationship of people. The importance of family and religion were very prevalent in Turkey. The Islamic call to prayer from the mosque was one of the most significant and compelling parts of the culture. The final image expresses an emphasis on night life culture the culture is about spending time with family in restaurants and bars in front of the scenic beach.

After photographing these images it made me question what defines a culture. I came to the conclusion a culture can be epitomised by its customs,behaviour and attitudes of the people. I found that Turkey was more liberal than I was expecting with relaxed and friendly locals. A countries past effects behaviour in the present. In Turkey's case people clearly appreciated the changes and felt it was important to celebrate.

This development was interesting to explore the uniqueness of different places in the world which directly links to my global perspective theme in my creator ship task. Following on from talking to different Turkish people, it has inspired me to look at comparisons between my country and a country very far from home. This development successfully looked in detail into Turkish Cultures, however it is not representative of my global perspective creator ship task that looks into a number of cultures not just one and therefore it is too small scale to develop.

Culture Comparison

Expanding the idea of looking into comparing a range of cultures in order to capture a global perspective, I compared these two market sellers depict the similarities between human nature despite cultural differences. The woman in Camden market who sells hand knitted products talks of the struggle of facing possible closure of the market by the council. The man who sells his hand crafted souvenirs on the Dacta coast describes the panic after the summer season ends, there is very little prosperity to make money so they have no choice but to close during the winter, making it hard to make ends meet. Despite the difference in Culture, religion, ethnicity and economy the comparison demonstrates the commonality around the world. This has inspired me to refine my research, looking further into comparing people from one area.Whilst this shows an insightful comparison of similarities and differences between England and Turkey it would be better to: look into a wider variety of culture comparisons, using different examples. Ideally using more countries but this is too difficult to do, so I will move on from comparing Countries. Instead I will look into the multi culture of one area.

For my next development I aim to broaden aspects of cultures on a wider scale. I chose to look at London as it is one of the most multi cultural areas in the UK. In order to make a direct comparison I decided to just focus on religion as the definition of culture is so subjective. Thus by focusing on an element of culture I can make deeper comparisons that show the immense variety of life in London.

Religion in London

Following on from comparing the culture of two countries, I decided to look into different elements of multi culture. I believe that the variety of Religion in London is one of the most prevalent factors that create culture differences in one area. To begin with I went to Green Lanes in Tottenham and photographed a variety of different religious buildings all with in 5 minute walk of each other. demonstrating the interconnections of religions in London.

Artist and Me

​For this development I was inspired by the work of Idris Khan, a photographer who creates multiple layers of a single photo to create a blurring effect to distort reality and show the depth of the world. I felt that this concept was applicable to my thesis of multi culture as the layering of religious buildings represents the interconnections of different cultures in London. In my image I layered images of a mosque, a church and a Greek Orthodox church and decreased the opacity of the images to create a melting pot of religion. Khan creates these images through long exposures and movement of the camera making it seem as if the position of the London eye has moved. I used short exposures to capture each building and layered them using Photoshop.

Process

!. Select and open the images you want to merge on Photoshop.

By clicking Control C, Control V you are able to layer one image on top of another. Then using the opacity tall you can vary the layers making some outlines more bold then others. Then using the eraser tool you can remove any imperfections to make the colours more natural.

Then you can add another image and repeat the same process as many times.

Although these images sucesfully show different religions on a wider scale, it only shows the exterior building of a religion.​I now want to start looking at specifically at people and how they intertwine their religion with their identity.

​Alexander Khimushin

Khimushin's work explores in depth Religion around the world. On the left Khimushin documents a Maya girl. Her religion derives from central American Roman Catholicism. On the right Khimushin captures an Afar girl. A religion that derives from Islam in Ethiopia. By photographing a series of different people around the world and placing them next to each other, he provides a global perspective. Following on from my development of exploring different religious building around London. I am now going to explore Different Religious Cultures in London. My aim is to explore how religion can determine an identity. Thus I looked into capturing religious attire and how it is symbolic to the individual. I will capture the photographs in the studio as the white background unifies the diversity.

My response​

This development looks into a range of religions which shows the diversity in a beautiful way. However it would be better to add complexity to the images by looking past religious attire and looking into the significance of religion

Process

Choose the image you would like to imprint on the person. Match the pattern size to the image size. Then change the resolution of the image to allow it to be stretched to the size of the subject with out blurring.

By clicking control c, v and then T you can layer the pattern onto the subject and stretch the image over the subject. Then change the opacity to see both the pattern and subject.

Using the rubber, remove the excess of pattern to just layer the pattern over the skin.

www: Eye captruing edit that portrays her culture and identity in a unique way.Ebi: The quality of the image should have been better to prevent blurring.

I repeated this process for my next two subjects. For Agnes I selected a stain glass window pattern to represent her christian faith and Aaliyah has an Islamic pattern that she identifies her Muslim faith with. By Covering parts of the body it patterns it represents their internal emotions to their identity externally. My intentions were to make the viewers look more closely into the vast range of beliefs in society as often people's faiths are overlooked. It also demonstrates despite the rate of secularisation, religion is still extreamly prevalent amongst young people, not just the elderly.

​I will continue looking into the Roll of Religion for young people in London. Looking specifically into how much their faiths determine their identity. E.g looking into restrictions in their lives, routines, how their religion effects their choices in life.

Positive Aspects of their religion For example Aaliyah has to go to Mecca once in her life time. Jonathan takes time off school to participate in jewish holidays. Anya frequently goes to mass weddings.

negative aspects- stereo types, mass media, religion and conflict. Also life style of young people. e.g Alliyah doesn't drink when all her friends do. Jonathan has to go to Shull and learn hebrew. Anya feels quite restricted by indian life style, her parents are quite strict.

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​ Religion is a major element of migration as it is an element of cultural transition. It helps many migrants settle in and creates a basis of identity. Religion can then stick through generations, making different religions a thoroughly integrated part of London society.

Richard Avedon: Artist & Me

Richard Avedon's series of the American West explores the identity of this subculture. The photographer travelled for five years meeting and photographing the people of the West - ranch workers, roustabouts, bar girls, drifters, and gamblers. He focused on men and women who worked at hard, uncelebrated jobs and lead unheralded lives. I took this same concept and stopped a number of people on the street who appeared average people walking in the street. By presenting them in black and white portraits against an edit white background it allows their identities to be presented more significantly as the viewer is more drawn to each detail of the subject. Like Avedon the portraits allow you to explore people's identities on a much deeper scale and just by looking at the image the viewer immediately questions who are they? where do they come from? and what are their stories? However unlike Avedon I selected a variety of subcultures to explore the differences and similarities in human nature.

​Intentions:Context:​Techniqe:

For this development I went round Wood Green and stopped a range of people in the street from a range of different backgrounds. I Then photoshopped each individual to have a white ground behind them. The black and white colours unite all the images in the series however it would be even better if I taken the photograph with a white background, to look more natural.

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Romanian woman shopping in the high street.

Cyclist coming home from work.

Man having coffee with his mate.

Man handing out leaflets for his local church.

Polish couple leaving restaurant.

Two guys just left the gym.

WWW. I managed to capture a an interesting variety of people from numerous backgrounds which explores the multi culture of this specific area. This inspired me to look specifically at the theme of immigration in London and find out why people move to the UK. It will be interesting to compare the different reasons as to why people make the move. I will explore those who choose to move and those who don't have a choice.EBI: It was difficult to build a rapport with many strangers on the street. Many didn't speak English fully, people were busy etc so for my next developments I will work harder too build up a rapport with people to find out a bit more about their stories. I will also work in the studio, using a white back drop in order to create better quality images.

Development

For my next development I went round school asking people about their heritage. I took photos of the individuals from a range of backgrounds. I then edited the images in black and white and enhanced the white background through photoshop.

David Jimenez, Columbia. A first generation immigrant that fluently speaks Spanish and came to England to escape the corrupt government system in Columbia. He still see's his original country as a massive part of his heritage.

Angela Rrakaj, Albania . A second generation immigrant who has grown up in London all her life and speaks Albanian at home.

Sophia Kyriacou, Cyprus. A second generation immigrant who has grown up in London all her life

Anais kafantaris, Greece. A second generation immigrant who has grown up in London all her life and speaks Greek with her family and still highly values her Greek culture.

These images look into a range of ethnicities and emphasise how multi cultural a single area can be. The subjects were selected from just one classroom, The black and white photoshop unites the images together in a series. To improve in my next development I am going to ask a variety of different questions depending on their responses instead of asking generic questions. I willFocus on the stories of people from different backgrounds and look into first generation immigrants to gain more depth and insight. I am also going to experiment by changing the position of the subjects and photograph them in their homes to explore life after migrating .

Individual Stories of Immigration to London.

For this development i decided to refine my research further by looking into a range of different peoples stories for moving to London. I will photograph them in their London homes to explore their relationship with their enviroment. I will ask them why they moved. What they Miss about their old country, What they like and dislike London to gain wider evidence of push and pull factors between countries.

​Ahmed's Journey

19 year old Refugee Ahmed, escaped the political conflict in Palestine in 2014. Tensions between Israeli and Palestinian territories are rapidly increasing ever since the collapse of the peace negotiations in the spring of 2014. Ahmed and his parents fled their homes soon after. Upon their journey for refuge 450,000 Palestine refugee were internally displaced in Syria. Many Palestinian refugees were denied rights to take refuge in Lebanon and Jordan as the government had closed its borders. Upon the journey Ahmed and his Dad were split up from his Mum. Ahmed and his Dad found themselves in Syria. It was believed that his Mum was taken to Turkey. In a split decision, Ahmed's Dad decided to leave Syria and attempt to find his wife, concerned for her safety. Ahmed was left in Syria in 2014 to fend for himself at just 19 years old. Then in 2015 Syria's own political war jeopardised Ahmed's safety in Syria. He was luckily taken to England by the red cross charity. 130,000 refugees have been allowed into the UK, however only about 67,000 have reached their final destination. This year in 2016 Ahmed was offered a home in North London with the Reynolds family. He is completely out of contact with his parents and have not seem them since 2014. It is unknown where his mother or father is. It is unknown if his father ever found his mother. Ahmed is trying his best to continue his life despite his circumstances. After a court case was open, he has since been denied rights to be able to work in the UK. However everyday he volunteers at a hairdresser in Kilburn. He is not allowed to be paid but is given a sum of £10 a day by the staff at the hairdresser to get by. The culture shock he is experiencing is indescribable but his determination and strength is an inspiration. Every day he lives his life in limbo waiting to hear from his parents. No one knows how long he could be in England for. As long as there continues to be war and conflict across the globe, his life remains an uncertainty . Whilst talking to him and getting to know him over a few months it is astonishing to see him adapting more to London life and picking up London slang.

Neboska Mladjenovic

Neboska was an extremely interesting man to talk to. He left Yugoslavia just before the start of the wars in 1991.The Yugoslav Wars were a series of ethnically-based wars and insurgencies fought from 1991 to 2001 inside the territory of the former Yugoslavia. After the Allied victory in World War II, Yugoslavia was set up as a federation of six republics, with borders drawn along ethnic and historical lines: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. He left his country after falling in love with his wife to be Andrea and began his life in England. He spoke of troubles with his identity after moving to London. He was born into a country that doesn't exist anymore. After his parents died in Serbia he felt very disconnected from his past and found it hard to go back. He is happy in London as he is happy where ever his family are. To Londoner's, he is classified as Serbian which he hates. He will always identify himself as Yugoslavian. However when he travels back to what use to be Yugoslavia they identify him as English. It is fascinating to think how strange it must be, being stuck between two identities.

​Barbara Bellabarbara

Barbara Bellabarbara migrated from Italy to England in the 1990s. Searching for better job opportunities, she began her life in London and made

George

George moved from Greece with his parents in 1985 for more job opportunities, He has taken skills he learnt from a young age in Greece and has since trained as a professional electrician and plumber in London. He moved to London to move away from the reckless government who provided little Security .

Lucia

Lucia from Naples remembers moving to London the day Princess Diana died in 1997. She decided to move to London as she fell in love with an English boy. She describes the transition she made as a lot easier than other peoples journeys and her boyfriend worked hard so she was financially supported. There was less of a rush to look for work where as most immigrants have to economically support themselves immediately. She also found it a lot easier to find work in London as there was a lot of discrimination in Italy as Lucia is part Turkish and part Spanish. Again like George and Barbara she misses the lifestyle in Naples as ir was very different to London. Far more family involvement and celebration.

​By talking to a range of people we are able to draw conclusions through the similarities of peoples stories. Everyone's stories has politcal, economic and social considerations. It seems that European countries tend to be more family orientated than London but London was appealing as is more economically and politically stable.

Humans of New York

For this development I took my camera to Wood Green again. I wanted to capture the way society views individuals. Each image captures exactly what society sees, their appearance. However once talking to a collection of different people, getting to know their stories, we discover how unique and individual everyone is. I chose to do head shots to link the people all together and show how everyone in society lives side by side everyone comes from different back grounds but sharing the stories of these people unites them together to create a community but also demonstrating much like the role of religion from the previous developments how in society, peoples backgrounds are often overlooked, ignoring the beauty of individualism. Thus fitting with the humans of New York. Although it succesfully captures a range of identities in one society, some images were landscape and some portrait. For my final piece I will repeeat this task but refine the images by making sure they fit together equally.

Final Development

Final piece

To accompany the images I decided to recapture the images in Wood Green themselves to demonstrate the uniting source of their identity. These images successfully celebrate multi-culture in a time of political and moral instability. I captured a range of ages and ethnicities in black and white head shots side by side to show although their are wide physical differences between people, humankind is more similar than society suggests.

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